Endowment Match Opportunities

The Simons gift will be disbursed over a seven-year period. Within the first three years, the initial $200 million will serve as a challenge to other philanthropists. This means that Stony Brook will only receive the first $200 million from the Simons Foundation when an additional $200 million is raised from other supporters in either restricted or unrestricted endowment gifts. In 2027, the university will receive another $100 million from the Simons Foundation endowment gift. Then, the remaining $200 million will be gifted to the university over the final three years.

Additionally, under New York state’s 1:2 matching program, the state provided an additional dollar for every two endowment dollars raised through March 31, 2026.

The Simons Infinity Investment, along with the New York state match, will expand the size of the university’s endowment and will pave the way for greater freedom to invest strategically and respond to emerging opportunities for years to come.

The Simons Infinity Investment could total $1 billion in funds for Stony Brook’s endowment and cement Stony Brook’s place as New York’s flagship of the future.

No. The gift is unrestricted, and Stony Brook University will decide where and how the gift is implemented.

This historic level of support will transform Stony Brook by giving the university the means to invest in areas most urgent and necessary for our communities, our state and the world. The endowment allows the university to invest to meet immediate needs and make strategic plans for its future. This gift increases the size of the university’s endowment and will pave the way for greater freedom to invest strategically and respond to emerging needs and opportunities.

Potential areas of impact include:

• Stable funding for student scholarships for a diverse student body
• Endowed professorships
• Innovative research
• Development of new academic fields
• Provision of excellent clinical care 
• Strengthening university rankings and reputation

Both Jim Simons, Hon. ’92 and Marilyn Hawrys Simons ’74, PhD ’84, Hon. ’08, co-founders of the Simons Foundation, have connections to Stony Brook University and have generously supported the institution for decades. The Simons Foundation continues to invest in Stony Brook University’s future as an internationally renowned research institution with a contribution of a $500 million unrestricted endowment gift.

Jim and Marilyn Simons both have personal relationships with the university. Jim joined Stony Brook as chair of the mathematics department in 1968, and Marilyn is a double alumna of Stony Brook. They met at the university and built a life and legacy of giving back to their communities. 

The Simons Foundation’s support, along with foundation President David Spergel’s ongoing commitment to advancing the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences over the past several decades, has enabled Stony Brook to earn its place as the top public university in New York state. This gift will cement Stony Brook as New York’s flagship of the future, helping the institution to continue to meet and exceed its commitment to educational excellence, research innovation and community investment.

The Simons Foundation was founded in 1994 by Jim and Marilyn Simons to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences.

Since its formation in 1994, Jim and Marilyn Simons and the Simons Foundation have donated over $1.225 billion to Stony Brook while also inspiring over 2,100 other donors to give to the university. Their transformational support has impacted every corner of the Stony Brook campus and beyond, from the Renaissance School of Medicine and the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics to the new Stony Brook Simons STEM Scholars program and more. 

In addition to this historic gift and previous gifts to Stony Brook University, most recently, following Stony Brook’s successful bid to serve as the anchor institution of The New York Climate Exchange, the Simons Foundation committed $100 million of the project’s expected $700 million budget. These funds will help establish a climate research, education and green-economy training hub, set to transform how the world responds to the climate crisis and pioneer investigation into environmental, community and health outcomes and impacts. Endowment funds will not be used for this initiative.

On June 30, 2023, shortly following the announcement of the New York state endowment matching challenge, the market value of Stony Brook’s endowment was $392 million. As of December 2025, the market value had risen to $825 million, and with continued fundraising efforts and positive financial market conditions, the endowment could potentially reach $1 billion by December 2026. Through the Stony Brook Endowment Match, endowment gifts of $100,000 or more will earn a 50 percent match until June 30, 2027, continuing the transformation of philanthropic investments into permanent sources of support.

In 2023, Governor Kathy Hochul introduced a $500 million state endowment match challenge open to SUNY’s four university centers, including Stony Brook. This matching program provided  $1 for every $2 contributed to an endowment. For example, a $100,000 endowment gift received an additional $50,000 in state matching funds. This program remained active through March 31, 2026. During this period, the Simons Foundation created the Simons Infinity Investment, which unlocked an equal contribution for Stony Brook’s unrestricted endowment. With both matches, the impact of endowment gifts was tripled, significantly expanding the university’s endowment. 

Throughout the lifecycle of the match, spanning from June 2023 to March 2026, 456 donors collectively gave Stony Brook $174.9 million. Backed by the power of the matches, the generosity of Stony Brook supporters is reshaping the university across various areas of impact. The influx of funding has generated great momentum, including 187 new or expanded student scholarships, 41 newly endowed faculty positions, funding for arts, engineering, humanities, business, health sciences and athletics, and research that stretches from Stony Brook to the Turkana Basin Institute in Kenya. 

To learn more about the impact of the New York State Match and Simons Infinity Investment, please visit Stony Brook Matters.